This is the Line of Division

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Dove’s dissembling

I’ve just seen this Dove bar commercial for the bazillionth time on Hulu. They claim that ordinary soap leaves behind a residue, which Dove does not. They claim this residue is what causes your finger to “drag” across your skin after washing with soap, while Dove does not leave this residue, so your skin is smooth.

I call bullshit. Say you’re washing your dishes, and you’re washing off a plastic container that had some oily food in it. Leftover seared salmon, say. Is it that nice slippery feeling that you look for that lets you know you’ve washed all the grease off your item? No, it is not. You rinse that thing off, and if it’s still slippery, you hit it with the detergent again, because until that thing squeaks, it’s not clean.

If washing with soap leaves your skin with the same feeling as a squeaky clean dish, and washing with Dove leaves it a little slippery, I’d say it’s the Dove that’s leaving a residue.

Interestingly, they make no attempt to reconcile this whole line of reasoning with their product’s advertised feature of moisturizing your skin. You say “moisturizer”, I say “residue”.